Puducherry doctors boycott work for two hours to protest intimidation of their colleague by Kiran Bedi

PUDUCHERRY: Members of the Puducherry Government Medical Officers’ Association on Tuesday boycotted work for two hours and staged a protest in front of hospitals and health centres to condemn lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi “demeaning and threatening” a senior medical officer during an inspection.
During an inspection at a health department complex on July 18, Bedi pulled up deputy director (public health) Dr G Ragunath for not evolving a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the PHCs in preventing the spread of Covid-19. The health department had evolved an infection-specific SOP and health experts felt it was not necessary for a hospital-specific or PHC-specific SOPs in the prevention of infections.
The association said Bedi forced the deputy director to write an apology and threatened to initiate departmental action against him.
In a memorandum addressed to chief minister V Narayanasamy, health minister Malladi Krishna Rao and director (health and family welfare) Dr S Mohankumar, association general secretary Dr G Anbusenthil and president Dr K Sriram said Bedi had 'questioned and demeaned' one of their seniormost doctors on the office premises.
"This has deeply wounded all of our fraternity. We request you to kindly look into the matter and settle the issue," the memorandum said.
"The intimidating manner of handling a very senior officer of the health department in front of subordinates and staff of other department and having popularised the video for fame has disturbed us a lot. Further, the honourable LG's words that she is reserving the video without releasing it and blackmailing the concerned official at the 4pm video conference (on July 18) was not expected from her," said the memorandum.
The association said the entire health department had been on Covid-19 duty since February this year. The public, officials of other departments and politicians had appreciated the work of health department staff members, it said.
"We are working on all days, including Sundays and public holidays, even at very late hours. The untiring work was insulted by the honourable LG in the health department complex. In such uncertain and unprecedented situations, her empathy would have been more welcome rather than the authoritative behaviour exhibited," the memorandum said.
The association pointed out that the medical officers at the primary health centres (PHCs) had been facing multiple supervisory hierarchies forcing them to work under a constant state of fear, which adversely affected their performance.
"Further, the field staff are forced to duplicate their work in soft copies. For the benefit of the permanent larger public of Puducherry, we have decided to work in the same manner as before…We strongly condemn the unruly, inhuman behaviour (of Bedi) towards a senior colleague," said the memorandum.